


The Nonexistant Ball

by LadyBrooke



Category: Nancy Drew - Carolyn Keene
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: “Nancy,” Helen Corning cried when Nancy opened the doorway, stepping quickly inside. “You won’t believe what those horrid sisters have done.”





	The Nonexistant Ball

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



“Nancy,” Helen Corning cried when Nancy opened the doorway, stepping quickly inside. “You won’t believe what those horrid sisters have done.”

Which sisters? Nancy looked at her friend as she closed the door behind her. Helen’s pink dress was askew from her rushed entrance into the house. “Who, Helen? Did they do something to you? Do I need to call Dad at his office?”

“Not to me, to you,” Helen said, moving towards the living room. “Yes, you should call your father. He’ll know what to do, I hope.”

Nancy glanced up, startled. “To me?”

“Yes! Mother heard from the Stewards over in Johnsonville. It’s awful, Nancy,” Helen exclaimed. “The Topham sisters have been using your name to sell tickets to a charity ball. They don’t even have a real location to host it at! And because of that newspaper article, everyone wants to buy tickets.”

 The Topham sisters had yet to forgive Nancy’s role in their family losing their inheritance. Nancy doubted they ever would, but this seemed far beyond their usual attempts to get revenge on her. Following her latest case, the _River Heights Gazette_ had published an article about Nancy, praising her efforts to help both her friends and strangers. Had the sisters been provoked into doing something this far beyond their normal attempts by it?

“Do you have any idea how many tickets they’ve already sold?” Nancy asked. “Or what they did with the money?”

Helen shook her head. “They appear to have vanished with it. I don’t think they could have sold many tickets, because they tried to avoid selling them to anyone who knew they hated you.”

“That still leaves plenty of people in the surrounding area to sell tickets to, since most people wouldn’t have paid attention to an article in a newspaper about a new will being discovered,” Nancy said.

“You should call your father now,” Helen urged. “He’ll know what to do.”

Nancy called her father, who had finished his cases for the day and said he would come home at once. Nancy and Helen waited anxiously for him to arrive, trying to figure out where the Topham sisters could have gone with the money.

Once Carson Drew  had arrived home and heard the story, he shook his head.

“I’m afraid there's not much of a mystery concerning where the Topham sisters have gone for you to solve,” he said.

“There isn’t?” Helen exclaimed.

“Do you know where they are?” Nancy asked.

“Jack Johnson at the bank came into my office this morning to discuss a legal matter involving the sale of his house. While we were discussing it, he mentioned that his neighbors, the Tophams, had left the prior evening to go the wedding of their daughter Ada. I suspect she, at least, has no plans to return to the area,” he said.

“Is there nothing we can do, Dad?” Nancy said.

“Of course there is. It is illegal to sell tickets under false pretenses, which is what they did – under two false pretenses, in fact, for they claimed to be selling the tickets for you and to benefit charity, neither of which was true.” Carson picked up his briefcase from the floor and stood. “If I hurry, I suspect I can catch Chief McGinnis before he goes home for the evening and inform him of the events. I’ll tell the judge in the morning, so that we can file a complaint against them.”

Nancy shook her head. “But there’s nothing to be done for the people who already bought tickets.”

Helen had calmed down by now, and shortly exclaimed. “Of course there is!”

Mr. Drew paused near the door as Nancy looked at her friend.

“All of the people you’ve helped – Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary, Emily, all of them –would be glad to help you if they could. We just need to find the people who bought tickets, and I’m sure someone will let us use the space to host a ball, even if we don’t get the money back,” Helen said.

“It takes quite a bit of money to run a ball,” Nancy said shortly.

Helen waved her off. “Let me worry that. You come up with a plan to find those people, and I’ll arrange a charity ball for them.”

“It’s worth a try, at least, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said. “You need to find the people who bought tickets to explain anyways, so there’s little to lose in the attempt. And if the police can locate Ada’s wedding, they may be able to recoup some of the cash to pay for the ball. They may even have a list of all the people who paid for tickets, if they wanted to avoid revisiting the same house.”

Nancy finally nodded. “I’ll go to Johnsonville today and see if I can locate the Stewards. If the Topham sisters tried to sell them a ticket, they may know of others who did buy a ticket.”

“You see, everything will work out fine,” Helen said, picking up a notepad to make a list of everything they would need for the ball.  

After a few days finding the ticket buyers, Nancy had to admit that Helen had been right. After she explained, everyone had been sympathetic to the titan-haired detective, blaming the Topham sisters for their scheme.

It had taken less time than she expected to find everyone, especially after her father called with news that the police had managed to locate a list the Topham sisters had made of everyone who had already bought a ticket, along with finding some of the money that had been forgotten and left behind in their house. The Topham sisters themselves had already left the country for Ada’s wedding by that point, but the police had a warrant for when they returned to the states.

Helen had outdone herself, quickly putting together a costume ball at Miss Flora’s house that attracted not only those who had bought tickets from the Topham sisters, but others as well who asked to buy tickets to attend after hearing about it.  

Nancy looked up as Helen came to stand by her, her hair poofed out like the rays of the sun and her dress sparkling as she moved. “I told you things would be fine, and look – I doubt this old house has seen this much festivity since my great-grandfather died.”

“You did,” Nancy said, smiling and smoothing down the sequins on her own dress. “I’m glad Miss Flora agreed to let us use her house for a masquerade ball.”

Helen laughed. “Not only did she agree, she wants to make it a yearly event – so you best start thinking of your costume for next year, Miss Detective. Perhaps you can be Miss Marple herself.”

“Only if you’ll be Henry Clithering,” Nancy replied, causing her friend to grin.

“Perhaps I will be! The hair might be easier than it was for a Sun Goddess and Medusa, at least, in case you have another mystery next year that takes up our time before the ball.” Helen looked over at Miss Flora and Aunt Rosemary. “You could even borrow some of their clothes, and we can get Don Cameron to play the criminal for an evening.”

Nancy burst out laughing. “That sounds like a plan.”

Helen winked, smoothing out her dress. “I might not be as famous a detective as you, Nancy, but I am perfect at being a sociable one.”

 


End file.
